Despite the unique status of English as a super-power among foreign languages in Korea, and researchers' increasing interest in Korean parents' zeal for achieving their children's early bilingualism and willingness to invest heavily in private English education outside of school, insufficient attention has been paid to the role of parental…

This study explored the language ideologies of Saudi cosmopolitan parents living in Western countries, their family language policies, and their children's reintegration into Saudi society. I used a qualitative research design to investigate the process of family language policies and practices and the underlying social, cultural, and religious…

This qualitative study examines amotivation in South Korean EFL students through the lens of activity theory. Using semi-structured interviews, data were collected from six elementary and secondary school students, aged 10 to 16 years (Grades 4 to 10), to explore key psychological constructs, including the ideal L2 self, the ought-to L2 self, the…

Families engage in a range of cultural practices in their everyday lives that shape children's early literacies. Given the growing number of children who are living outside the country of their birth or their parents' birth, more research is needed to highlight the under-recognised literacies of young children shaped by their family cultural…

This study examines how a high-pressure family language policy (FLP) is implemented in South Korea, focusing on the experiences of a family with a preschool-aged child, Jay. The phenomenon of "English fever," which has led to the widespread adoption of intensive early childhood English education, has contributed to the increasing…

This research, conducted at a major university in Tanzania, investigated the personal experiences of multilingual students vis-à-vis the government's language policy requiring Swahili as the language of instruction (LoI) at the primary level and English at the secondary level. The participants, who spoke 25 different languages as their L1, were…

The "optimism hypothesis" claims that immigrant students do better in the Norwegian education system than their socioeconomic status would suggest, due to the strong educational aspirations that immigrant parents might have for their children. Grounded in an educational equity paradigm, this study aims to test this hypothesis by…

Despite the promise of English language teaching and the use of English as a medium of instruction, concerns have been growing about the decline in the number of English majors as well as structural problems in elite language education reflected in the rural-urban divide and resulting educational gaps in China. The English education major at a top…

Recent conceptualizations of L2 motivation have regarded target language learners' goal-directed visions as the core feature of directed motivational currents; that is, a period of intense and enduring motivation in pursuit of a favorable personal vision. This study reports on a multiple-case study designed to explore the effective factors on…

Contemporary research has reiterated the complexity of motivation as shaped by an array of personal and contextual elements. Drawing on a person-in-context relational view, the present study aims to explore learners' motivational constructions through their ongoing interaction with significant others such as teachers, peers, parents and extended…

Informed by Bourdieu's conceptualisation of habitus and its relation with social class, this study explores the construction and negotiation of middle-class identity among a group of urban overseas returnees in China. Using ethnographic interviews and online observational data, the study found that participants built a compliant identity…

This longitudinal study draws on family language policy (FLP) research to examine a group of Chinese parents' ideological beliefs, practices, and management efforts related to their children's learning of multiple languages, including Chinese, English, and Spanish in an international boarding school in China. Based on data analysis, including…

Drawing on semi-structured interviews with six Chinese migrant families with children aged 12-15 years old, this qualitative study uses a Bourdieusian lens to probe how the historically lived and migration experiences of Chinese internal migrant parents construct their paradoxical beliefs in children's English learning and informs their family…

Studies have shown the ways in which non-Western middle- and upper-class families are seeking to educate their children in the West. The rationale for this kind of social reproduction strategy is the acquisition of 'valuable' cultural and symbolic capitals which can be advantageous in the graduate job market of both their home country and…

There are numerous scholarly articles that focus on Chinese Students' decisions to go overseas and challenges they face in American High Schools. These research generates a holistic view on the subject., with many of them agreeing each other. Yet, despite many scholarly articles discussing this topic, I find few of these studies originate from…